Flower for the Day 4-6-12

The tulips did well this year as food for the deer and rabbits. It could have been disappointing if I were not naturally ecumenical. I could not blame them for eating this tulip named Ice Cream Sundae.

I wish you all a blessed and sacred Easter and also hope the fabled Easter Bunny brings you more than you deserve.

Flower for the Day 4-5-12

This little flower grows in the shady woods in the wildflower garden. It showed up last year for the first time. It is a bluebell (Mertensia virginica) which actually

matures in a subtle pink color. It is native to Missouri.

Flower for the Day 4-3-12

This mature red bud tree has grown over our deck each year. This has allowedme to examine the red buds more closely.

 

"... and the day came when the risk it took to remain tight in the bud was morepainful than the risk it took to blossom..."  from Sharon Logan

 

You have my permission to use these images as you wish either to forwardto your friends or your own flower list. Some have used them for personal greeting cards. I would appreciate photo credit if you do.

 

Flower for the Day 4-2-12

The dogwood trees have been spectacular this year. Since the flowers face upwardthey are not easy to show. This dogwood lives outside our bedroom windowso we can look down on it. One of the nicest gifts that I ever received was a simple dogwood quilt sewn by the widow of a patient. Years later I am still inspired by this act of kindness.

 

 

 

Flower for the Day 4-1-12

This Bud's for you. We begin our Flower for the Day program for the fifth and possiblythe last year. It is hard to know where to begin. There are so many flowers 

and creatures in the garden now. We are about a month early from previous years.

Jan found this bud in the wildflower garden and we have no idea what it might have grown into.

As before I will share flowers and creatures and adventures for this year as they occur about four or five times a week. Let me know if I have said something 

wrong or have misidentified something.Please let me know if you wish to be removed from the list.

Don Sessions

The Flower Guy

This is a liqueur glass that I brought home from Venice in 1958.

 

Shaving Brush Tree 3-15-12

Watching the flower of the Shaving Brush Tree 

(Pseudobombax ellipticum) is an adventure. At dusk

the buds begin to peel open as the sepals begin to 

fall away. They finally bloom fully in the complete dark 

and this can be seen only by flashlight. 

The blooms remain open for the rest of the night and naturally fall off the tree by the middle of the next day. Here is a fully opened shaving brush flower with its white stamen at 10:00 am the next day. The blooms end up on the ground by noon.The tree blooms for about a week or more.

Skink 3-15-12

Skinks are small lizards (Scincidae) that populate the tropical gardens. This skink,on our deck screen, is enlarging (blowing out) his neck.

  

It is a time of love for these skinks. Incidentally "Skink" is the nickname of a weird and wacky character in novels by Carl Hiaasen. I'm currently reading Star Island. Skink is also known as "The Governor". In previous books he has resigned as Florida's Governor and fled to the Everglades where he continues to live off the land by eating freshroad kill from nearby highways and fights against unscrupulous developers. Its great fun.

Gopher Tortoise 3-13-12

The gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyhemus) is a land tortoise that is over 60 million years old.

 

We found this one by the road in the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge.

 

Beach Flower 3-9-12

This plant sends out tendrils to stabilize the beach. Its tiny flower is spectacular.

Prickly Pear blooms 3-8-12

These are prickly pear (Opuntia) blooms taken with my new lens.

 

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